Can Classical Conditioning Occur Without Contingency Learning? A Review and Evaluation of the Evidence

This paper reviews experimental evidence relevant to the issue of whether human classical conditioning can occur in the absence of awareness of the CS‐UCS contingency (contingency learning). It is concluded that the evidence fails to convincingly demonstrate successful conditioning in the absence of contingency learning. In fact, the evidence is more consistent with the view that contingency learning is an essential mediator of human classical conditioning. Although original learning may require the presence of contingency learning, the performance of a previously acquired conditioned response may not require such mediation.